The two most important components in court reporting, broadcast captioning, and CART providing training in any court reporting schools or other methods of training are: the theory you learn and the support you receive during your court reporting school training. Either can ensure your success … or your failure.MORE>>>

REALTIME - THE FUTURE OF COURT REPORTING
If you are considering a court reporting, captioning or CART Providing career, it is essential you learn realtime from the beginning of your training.

What is realtime court reporting?
Realtime is when we write on our steno machine and the words translate into English immediately, realtime on a computer screen, television screen, or streamed to the Internet.

We can write realtime for the court reporting career, as well as the careers of broadcast (closed) captioning, and CART Providing.

Realtime reporters are the gold standard for court reporting. With their skill they have transformed the entire legal profession, as well as made it possible for the hearing impaired to participate not only in legal proceedings, but to have access to television broadcasts, and classroom lectures.

The benefits of realtime court reporting are many. Listed below are some of the most important ones.

Transcripts available immediately. In the past attorneys and the court might wait weeks to receive the court reporters transcript.

Information within the transcript is easily found. No other form of court reporting can provide keyword search.

Instant streaming to support staff and other parties involved in a case.

Your court reporting career may utilize your court reporting skills in a variety of ways.

You may be a freelance court reporter who owns your own business, or a freelance court reporter whose job is to work for a court reporting firm or court reporting agency.

You may be a broadcast closed captioner, whose career utilizes your court reporting skills to capture the text of live television programs to allow access for hearing impaired viewers.

CART Providing is the other realtime career, providing access to classroom lectures for hearing impaired college and university students.

Most captioning and CART careers are done from home.

Your court reporting job may also be as an official court reporter whose court reporting job it is to report trials and hearings for state and federal courts, both civil and criminal.

The career outlook for court reporting, closed captioning and CART providing is excellent as indicated by the Department of Labor. Realtime court reporting jobs are expected to grow at well above the average rate for the next several years according to the Department of Labor and the National Court Reporters Association.

Most estimates of court reporter salaries range from $60,000 to over $100,000 per year in all the realtime court reporting careers.

Freelance Court Reporters comprise about two thirds
of the total court reporters nationwide.Their job is to report depositions primarily, but other assignments include arbitrations, mediations, conventions, company meetings, etc.

In some states freelance court reporters are allowed to report trials and hearings in the civil court system. Freelance court reporters also work for court reporting firms or court reporting agencies as they are sometimes called.The court reporting firm will either consider you a full-time employee and take a commission from you while withholding the usual taxes an employer is responsible for withholding, or they will consider you an independent contractor and take a commission from you for the assignments you handle.

You are at liberty with some firms to accept assignments directly from attorneys or from other firms. The commission charged by firms ranges from 10% to 30% across the United States with 20-25% being the average.In exchange for this commission, court reporting firms or furnish some of your supplies, business cards, assignments, and an office if you are an employee.

Court Reporting Salaries?

It is not unusual today for realtime freelance court reporters salaries to exceed six figures.
It is not unusual today for realtime freelance court reporters salaries to exceed six figures.

BROADCAST CLOSED CAPTIONING and CART PROVIDING

Closed captioning is performed by court reporters who learn a broadcast closed captioning software, and write the captions you see underneath the television program for hearing impaired persons.

There are numerous closed captioning companies, and learning court reporting skills, in a court reporting school is the first step. Most closed captioning companies require the court reporter to write 180-200 wpm literary dictation with 97% accuracy.Closed Captioning requires a more refined skill, because there is no opportunity to go back and edit the captions.

As an "official" court reporter, you will work in the court system. Almost all criminal court systems employ their own court reporters, and in some states the civil courts are also covered by official reporters.

As an official, you may be a county, state, or federal employee who receives a salary and in most states also receives a page rate for the transcripts of the trials and hearings you produce.

Official Court Reporter Salaries?

Salaries vary from state to state and even county to county from the low end of about $45,000 to the high end of about $85,000 for a federal official. The income officials earn for transcripts on top of their annual salary vary from about $20,000 to $30,000 annually.
As a county, state, or federal employee, you have the security of a set monthly income plus transcripts, and a benefits package that may include health insurance, life insurance, 401-K, paid vacation, holidays, sick leave, etc.

Some officials are furnished their equipment and software in some states. About 15% of all court reporters are officials. As with other court reporting and closed captioning careers official court reporters learn their court reporting careers in court reporting schools.